Letter to Lena Dunham: In Defense of The Porn Parody

Author’s Note: This is a response letter to Lena Dunham’s protest against her show being a porn parody by Hustler.

What’s up Lena,

How is the writing and filming Season 3 of “Girls” going? That dude who played Charlie that left because of ‘differences’, whatever, he sounds like a douche and will regret it. He is a mediocre actor and ungrateful for the chance you gave him. So it goes.

Any ways, first, I must start off and say I am a big fan of the show. I love the writing and that ending of Season 2 (Spoiler Alert…stop reading if you haven’t seen it) with Adam carrying you (Hannah) in his arms was really beautiful. I like that you are taking on mental illness making it part of Hannah’s character, making E-Books look legitimate, and last I think people talking shit about you hooking up with Patrick Wilson is sexist, shallow, and stupid, as men find all types of woman attractive.

I know this for a fact because I managed a porn store for two years (hey, I’m a writer too and we all got to do shit to pay the bills while we write) and I’ve seen some pretty boys rent some videos of women (sometimes of men, and women with male parts) of all shapes, races, and sizes. This leads me to my point that “Girls” having a porn parody should not be an outrage but an acknowledgement that you have a show that has entered pop culture.

A lot of the ‘guys’ that would come to the porn store were not deviant pervs but actually low-class single lonely immigrants, many of them cab drivers who know about the show by hearing young girls talk about why Shoshanna should stay with Ray. They can’t afford HBO but with enough drunken cab rides of your fans talking about your show they know the characters as good as you do.

The fact that ‘Hustler’ is making this video is because these lonely ‘men’ have heard of the show and want something to look at when they get done with their 4 AM shift. Most of these dudes want something of a story to understand more of American pop culture…while masturbating, they usually have a second job so don’t have much time for recreational TV watching.

I understand why you’d be pissed as your sex scenes are big middle finger to the porn industry and it is not feminist to support Larry Flynt taking your art and putting a dopple of you getting banged by some weird Adam-looking dude with a huge cock, but while a lot of 21st century men are enlightened trying to move toward an equality of the sexes; these dudes still watch actual porn movies on DVD’s because many don’t have Internet. They just want to survive, understand America, and masturbate at weird hours to porn till they find a wife.

I say you let this one go; you are a funny writer, so have a sense of humor about this and pick your battles in the war of equality. Parody and Satire is a healthy thing even if it’s from male pornographic perspective (I went through this in The Infinite Jest of Picking Porn Titles) as you are now up there with Obama (“Obama Bangs Your Mama”), Sarah Palin, “Star Trek”, and “Seinfeld”. Take it is a compliment not as a battle you have to fight.

Mainstream Porn is not your true enemy as your sex scenes (which some prudes would call porn) have been picked apart, because they are artistic and not typical porn–so I understand why you’d be pissed. You’re doing ‘realism’ and I respect it, but there are all types of art and I agree with Camille Pagila that porn is a type of art. Hustler’s is a shitty art, as male-focused porn is like crappy fantasy novels with wizards or whatever (Books that aren’t “Harry Potter”) directed at men but they have their place in the world just like “Girls” does.

Just see it for what it is: Weird-Al-Like Larry Flynt taking your hit song and putting his stupid spin on it.

A fan stoked for Season 3,
Christoph Paul

PS: Do you think you could have Ray read my book, his character would like it.